Byrne James Image 1 Warwickshire 1895

Description

Penns, Warwickshire born James “J.F.” Byrne was a sportsman who concentrated on his highly successful rugby career in the earlier stages of his sporting life. A full back, Byrne played his initial rugby with Moseley, whom he captained. He had a safe pair of hands, considerable pace, could punt the ball long as was solid in defence. Often used as a place kicker, Byrne was able to put the ball through the posts from the half way mark.

Byrne appeared in 17 Test matches, 13 of them for England and the other four with the British Lions. His first cap was awarded in 1894 and his last in 1899, by which time he had accumulated 36 Test points. He took part in the 1896 British Lions tour to South Africa and played in all 21 games. The squad was dominated by Irish players and Byrne was the only England international. He scored 127 points all up and became the first player to top 100 points in a tour of South Africa. This record wasn’t broken until the All-Blacks visited South Africa in 1960, by Don Clarke, who was incidentally also a first class cricketer. Byrne was England’s captain in the 1898 Home Nations Championship, which included a draw against Scotland and a win over Wales.

As a cricketer Byrne was a hard hitting right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played for Warwickshire from 1897 to 1912. He made a century on debut, in his maiden first class innings, against Leicestershire at Edgbaston in 1897. He finished the summer with 642 runs at 33.78 from 12 matches and although he scored 943 runs at 21.93 in 1905, the effort in his debut season was perhaps better as he played considerably less matches.

His cricket career was interrupted by his service in the Army, when he fought in the Second Boer War around the urn of the century. Having returned to England, Byrne captained Warwickshire from 1903 to 1907 and it was during this time that he had most success with the ball. He took 31 wickets at 24.54 in 1904 and 22 wickets at 28.95 in 1905. Earlier, in 1902, Byrne had the distinction of claiming the wicket of W. G. Grace twice in one match, when the England great was playing for London County against Warwickshire at The Crystal Palace.

Byrne represented the Gentlemen cricket team in a 1905 fixture of the Gentlemen v Players matches. He scored 24 and 10 in his two innings, dismissed by John Gunn on both occasions. The same summer he made his highest score of 222 when he opened the batting with Sep Kinneir, against Lancashire at Edgbaston. Kinneir also scored a century and the pair put on a club record first wicket partnership of 333.

Warwickshire broke through for their inaugural County Championship in 1911 and Byrne was a member of their squad that year, although he only participated in one match. His contribution came in a match against Hampshire, as captain no less, scoring 64 in his only innings as Warwickshire won by an innings and 296 runs. His appearances for Warwickshire had been sporadic from 1907 onwards with only one first class match in 1908, none in 1909 and two in 1910. The Hampshire fixture was the second last of his career and he played his final match in 1912.

In 140 first class matches, Byrne scored 4 centuries and 23 half centuries with a batting average of 22.80. He took 74 wickets at 30.37 a piece with a best performance of 5-37, his only five wicket performance, and he also held 81 catches in the first class game. Once his playing days were over, Byrne remained involved in sport as a member of both Warwickshire’s and Moseley’s committees.

Some of Byrne’s relatives also excelled at sports: his brother Francis was an England rugby international while a nephew, George Byrne, was a first class cricketer, as was great-grandson Jonathan Perry in the 1980’s.